60s Folk/Transcript
Transcript Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby Tim sits on the ground in a park, playing a few notes on an acoustic guitar. Moby walks up to him with a letter. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Hey, man. Trying to write a song, man. MOBY: Beep. Tim reads from the typed letter. TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, who was Bob Dylan? From, Suze R. An image shows Bob Dylan singing and playing a guitar. TIM: Bob Dylan was... and is, a musician and songwriter. He became popular during the heyday of folk music during the early 1960s. MOBY: Beep. An image shows a father singing a bedtime song to his child. TIM: Well, folk music is really just the traditional music of a particular community. Folk songs are usually passed down through the generations rather than being written down. An image shows the score of a song, "Banks of the Ohio." Under the title it says, "Traditional, author unknown." TIM: That's why many folk songs are anonymous. No one knows who wrote some of the most popular tunes. Folk music in the United States covers a lot of areas like country, gospel, blues, Cajun, and Native American music. Images show a country musician playing a banjo, a gospel performer singing, a blues player strumming a guitar, a Cajun musician playing an accordion, and a Native American musician playing a drum. TIM: Although plenty of it is also about relationships and heartache, what we think of as popular folk music is often about current and historical events. An image shows Woody Guthrie playing a guitar. TIM: The genre grew popular during the 1930s when a man named Woody Guthrie started broadcasting on the radio and recording songs like "This Land is Your Land." The image expands to show Guthrie’s guitar with the political message, "This Machine Kills Fascists," written on it. Protestors with signs are standing behind Guthrie. TIM: Guthrie was interested in social activism, and he used his songs to carry political messages about things like the rights of migrant workers and the perils of life during the Depression. These songs later became known as protest songs, and were popular in the sixties folk scene. MOBY: Beep. An image shows people protesting and holding up anti-war signs, and a sign demanding “Desegregation Now!" TIM: Well, there was a lot going on in the world during the 1950s and 60s, and young people were speaking out against things like war and racism. An image shows Bob Dylan playing the guitar at the protest rally. TIM: It was in that climate that Bob Dylan popularized folk with songs like "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are a-Changin'." He got a lot of inspiration from Guthrie, but created his own style that combined simple tunes with intelligent lyrics. An image shows New York City on a map of the United States. TIM: Dylan also led the folk music revival, as it's sometimes called, in New York City's Greenwich Village. MOBY: Beep. An image shows a woman playing the guitar in a park in Greenwich Village. TIM: Oh, Greenwich Village is a neighborhood in downtown New York City where many artists and musicians lived during the sixties. It was also home to beat writers, whose concern with social and political issues heavily influenced folk musicians. An image shows two beat writers at a desk. One is writing with a pen, the other is smoking a cigarette and holding a coffee mug. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Well, different folk musicians had different styles. An image shows a man playing a banjo and a man playing a guitar. TIM: But the folk music of the sixties drew heavily from the country and blues sounds developed by the rural musicians of the South. It usually featured acoustic, or nonelectric, instruments, like banjos, mandolins, harmonicas, and fiddles. An image shows the four instruments Tim describes. TIM: Often, just one person sang and played the guitar. Musicians like Pete Seeger, Joni Mitchell, Phil Ochs, Joan Baez, Tom Paxton, Phil Ochs, Joan Baez, Tom Paxton, and Ramblin' Jack Elliot are some of the most well-known singer/songwriters from the sixties. An image shows the musicians Tim mentions. TIM: Small groups like Peter, Paul, and Mary were also popular, as were earlier folk bands like The Weavers and The Kingston Trio. An image shows the three groups Tim lists. MOBY: Beep. An image shows a British flag. TIM: Well, the folk scene sort of died down when something called the British Invasion hit the United States. An image shows The Beatles. TIM: A band you've probably heard of called The Beatles started it off in 1964, creating a craze for rock n' roll. An image shows Bob Dylan playing an electric guitar. TIM: Even Bob Dylan traded in his acoustic guitar for an electric one. But the influence of 1960s folk is undeniable. It turned popular music into a forum for serious issues. An image shows the band, The Byrds. TIM: And many other folk artists later experimented with the sounds that The Beatles pioneered creating a new genre called folk-rock. Side by side images show Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan. TIM: Many musicians today claim inspiration from people like Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan. Moby picks up a guitar. TIM: Ah, just be careful not to strum too— Moby strums roughly and causes guitar strings to break. TIM: hard. Category:BrainPOP Transcripts Category:BrainPOP Social Studies Transcripts Category:BrainPOP Arts & Music Transcripts